The Four 'Aston Martin's Featured in 'No Time to Die'

James Bond and Aston Martin have been an iconic duo for over 60 years now, with the sleek cars of the luxury British brand and the suave British spy going hand-in-hand through countless world-saving missions throughout the years. In this article, we'll look at the four Aston Martin's that appear in the latest entry to the Bond saga, 'No Time To Die', as well as a brief overview of each of the cars featured in the new movie.

Aston Martin DB5

Often mistakenly considered the first Bond car, 007's iconic Aston Martin DB5 actually made its first appearance in the 1964 movie 'Goldfinger'. Whilst the movie car is fitted with a series of armaments for the suave super-spy, including .30 caliber machine guns and tire-shedding blades, the real car is no less impressive. Produced by the British automobile manufacturer between 1963-1965, the DB5 touts a 4-speed manual gearbox, paired with a 4.0L straight-6 engine that produces a total of 210HP. This may be low for a sports car by today's standards, but it is impressive for the era.

The DB5 is arguably the most iconic car ever produced by Aston Martin, in no small part thanks to its recurring role in the James Bond series. Fans of the movies will surely remember the iconic scene from Daniel Craig's first outing as Bond in 2006's Casino Royale. In this scene, he wins the silver classic DB5 from Dimitrios, played by Simon Abkarian, in a high-stakes poker game.

Aston Martin V8 Vantage

First featured in the fifteenth Bond movie, 'The Living Daylights', the Aston Martin V8 Vantage is first driven on screen by Timothy Dalton's rendition of James Bond. The decision to include the V8 Vantage in the movie was taken late into the film's production, which according to the movie's special effects supervisor, John Richardson, led to significant issues in obtaining the vehicles for filming.

With the V8 Vantage having an 18-month waiting list at the time it was chosen for the feature, the production team was forced to purchase three of the vehicles in used condition. While one car was left unmodified for filming scenes with Dalton driving the car, the second was determined as a stunt car, whilst the third was deemed as the 'Special Effects Car', famously equipped with missiles and a rocket booster.

The V8 Vantage was described on it's release as 'Britain's First Supercar' as a result of it's 170MPH top speed. Despite sharing the same engine as the Aston Martin Lagonda of the time, the V8 Vantage utilized an increased compression ratio, high-performance camshafts, larger inlet valves and bigger carburettors, which were mounted on new manifolds for increased output.

The result of the aforementioned performance tweaks to the original Lagonda engine made the V8 Vantage a true beast of the era. With a whopping 390BHP and 406lb-ft of torque being produced from the car's 5.3L V8 engine, the grand-tourer coupe was capable of a 0-60 speed of just 5.3 seconds, which made it the best performing production car in a straight-line upon its debut.

Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

One of the most recent additions to the series, the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera makes it's impressive debut in the recent movie, 'No Time To Die'. Driven by new 00 agent Nomi, the flagship of Aston Martin's current supercar range boasts an impressive 715HP and rapid acceleration of 0-62mph in just 3.4 seconds. It's powered by a 5.2 Liter twin-turbocharged V12 engine, allowing it to produce 900nm of torque, which is currently the highest torque figure ever produced by any road legal Aston Martin.

In celebration of the DBS Superleggera's inclusion in Daniel Craig's last outing as Bond, the Warwickshire-based manufacturer also released a special unique "007 Edition" of the supercar. Highly exclusive, this special edition was limited to just 25 units worldwide. While the car remains unchanged in its performance elements, the 007 Edition adds several aerodynamic and styling elements to truly show the specialty of the rare car, including subtle 007 branding throughout.

Aston Martin Valhalla

Aston Martin's first ever hybrid supercar, the Valhalla was able to be viewed in the latest Bond installment. The result of a collaboration between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing, the Valhalla takes several technological lessons learned from the manufacturer's Formula 1 teams and brings them to the road. Fittingly, before it's official name of Valhalla was announced, the car was known by it's project name "Son of Valkyrie", due to Aston's intention for the car to sit just below it's more track-focused hypercar, the Valkyrie, as a more comfortable option for everyday road usage.

Whilst the initial concept version of the car was given a 3.0L Aston Martin TM-01 twin-turbocharged V6 engine to produce 986HP, the final production version instead features an engine by Mercedes-Benz. The German manufacturer supplies the car with it's 4.0 L Mercedes-AMG M178 LS2 twin-turbocharged V8, which despite having almost 50 less horsepower at it's disposal than the concept version, still produces a whopping 937HP.

The mid-engined plug-in hybrid pairs it's phenomenal power with an ultra light weight, with Aston Martin claiming the production version's final weight to come in at under 1,550 Kg (3,417 Lbs) and utilizes a unique "Flexfoil" rear wing. Intergrated into the bodywork, the Flexfoil wing allows the car to change it's downforce without changing it's angle of attack and is boldly claimed to generate no drag or aerodynamic turbulence. The Valhalla is perhaps the most unique car featured in the latest Bond film, still being a concept that hadn't entered production at the time of the movie. The car is limited to 999 units worldwide and is estimated to cost around $800,000.